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Abstract
This article analyses the successes and shortcomings of eGovernment reform in Russia in the context of three main aspects: public services provision; state regulatory activities; and interdepartmental interaction. The research was prompted by the rapid ascent of Russia in international eGovernment rankings, which reflects a more intense utilisation of information and communication technologies in the sphere of public administration. Within a short period of time, reformers were able to install a considerably advanced eGovernment architecture, supporting interactive and transactional remote access to government services. Yet, further progression towards a more responsive government and eDemocracy requires the adoption of higher standards of openness and accountability.
Notes
1 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 65, ‘Federal’naya Tselevaya Programma “Elektronnaya Rossiya (2002–2010 gody)”’, 27 January 2002, available at: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/activity/programs/6/, accessed 2 December 2018.
2 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1815-r, ‘O gosudarstvennoi programme Rossiiskoi Federatsii “Informatsionnoe obshchestvo (2011–2020 gody)”’, 20 October 2010.
3 See, for example, Levashov (Citation2013); ‘Elektronnoe Pravitel'stvo Rossii. Polnoe dos’e’, cnews.ru, 20 November 2013, available at: http://www.cnews.ru/articles/elektronnoe_pravitelstvo_rossii_polnoe_dose, accessed 3 December 2018.
4 See, for example, Putin (Citation2003).
5 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1815-r, ‘O gosudarstvennoi programme Rossiiskoi Federatsii “Informatsionnoe obshchestvo (2011–2020 gody)”’, 20 October 2010.
6 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 65, ‘O federal’noi tselevoi programme “Elektronnaya Rossiya (2002–2010 gody)”’, 28 January 2002.
7 ‘FTsP “Elektronnaya Rossiya (2002–2010 gody)”’, Ministry of Communication and Mass Media, 2014, available at: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/activity/programs/6/#section-finance, accessed 6 December 2018.
8 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 632-r, ‘Kontseptsiya formirovaniya v Rossiiskoi Federatsii Elektronnogo Pravitel'stva do 2010 goda’, 6 May 2008.
9 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1021-r, ‘Kontseptsiya snizheniya administrativnykh bar’erov i povysheniya dostupnosti gosudarstvennykh i munitsipal’nykh uslug na 2011–2013 gody’, 10 June 2011.
10 For more details see the official webpage of the Commission, available at: http://government.ru/department/149/events/, accessed 6 December 2018.
11 This was best evidenced in the statements of the country's leaders and key executives, responsible for the implementation of the reform. Vladimir Putin made a statement on the inefficiency of the programme in his speech at the special meeting. See ‘V.V. Putin provel soveshchaniye po voprosu O Federal’noi Tselevoi Programme “Elektronnaya Rossiya (2002–2010)”’, 27 May 2009, available at: http://archive.premier.gov.ru/events/news/4240/, accessed 18 February 2019. In addition, Ilya Massukh, then the Deputy Minister of Communication and Mass Media, stated that ‘many of the objectives of the Programme were not achieved’ (Rudycheva Citation2011).
12 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1815-r, ‘O gosudarstvennoi programme Rossiiskoi Federatsii “Informatsionnoe obshchestvo (2011–2020 gody)”’, 20 October 2010.
13 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1815-r, ‘O gosudarstvennoi programme Rossiiskoi Federatsii “Informatsionnoe obshchestvo (2011–2020 gody)”’, 20 October 2010.
14 The United Nations E-Government Surveys are available at: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/, accessed 6 December 2018.
15 For more information regarding the IDI refer to the official page of the report, ‘The ICT Development Index (IDI): conceptual framework and methodology’, available at: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2017/methodology.aspx, accessed 9 December 2018.
16 The data aggregated on the basis of panel studies of the ‘Public Opinion’ Foundation and GFK Consulting. See, ‘Internet v Rossii: dinamika proniknoveniya. Zima 2016–2017 gg.’, ‘Public Opinion’ Foundation, 5 May 2017, available at: https://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/13300, accessed 6 December 2018.
17 ‘Razvitie interneta v regionakh Rossii’, Yandex, Spring 2015, available at: https://yandex.ru/company/researches/2015/ya_internet_regions_2015, accessed 6 December 2018.
18 ‘Razvitie interneta v regionakh Rossii’, Yandex, Spring 2016, available at: https://yandex.ru/company/researches/2016/ya_internet_regions_2016, accessed 6 December 2018.
19 ‘Rynok internet-torgovli Rossii. Itogi za 2016 god’, AKIT, 28 June2017, available at: http://www.akit.ru/%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82-%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B8-%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8-%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8/, accessed 18 February 2019.
20 Digital Government 2020: Prospects for Russia, April 2016 (Washington, DC, World Bank), available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24402, accessed 7 December 2018.
21 See Decree of the President of the Russian Federation N. 601, ‘Ob osnovnykh napravleniyakh sovershenstvovaniya sistemy gosudarstvennogo upravleniya’, 7 May 2012.
22 ‘Obnovlen Edinyi portal gosuslug’, Ministry of Communication and Mass Media, 10 April 2018, available at: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/events/38138/, accessed 7 December 2018.
23 ‘Gosuslugi v internete: vostrebovannost', Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), 16 April 2014, available at: https://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/11461, accessed 7 December 2018; ‘Gosuslugi onlain: otsenki pol’zovatelei’, WCIOM, 12 November 2015, available at: https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=236&uid=115460, accessed 7 December 2018.
24 The official statistics provided by the Ministry of Communication and Mass Information do not distinguish between individuals and companies, which has led to some inaccuracies in analysing the impact of the portal on public services in Russia. In the official documents released by the ministry, the terms ‘users’ and ‘persons/citizens’ are used synonymously.
25 ‘Podvedeny itogi raboty portala gosuslug v pervom polugodii 2016 goda’, Ministry of Communication and Mass Media, 13 July 2016, available at: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/events/35420/, accessed 7 December 2018.
26 The Expert Centre for Electronic Government calculated that only 6.6% of Russians actually had full access to the portal in 2014 (Kostyleva Citation2014).
27 See for example, ‘Podvedeny predvaritel'nye itogi raboty edinogo portala gosuslug v 2015 godu’, Ministry of Communication and Mass Media, 2015.
28 ‘Podvedeny itogi raboty edinogo portala gosuslug v 2017 godu’, Ministry for Communication and Mass Media, 8 February 2018, available at: https://digital.gov.ru/ru/events/37879/, accessed 10 December 2018.
29 See: ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2014, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2014.html, accessed 10 December 2018; ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2015, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2015.html, accessed 10 December 2018; ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2016, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2016.html, accessed 10 December 2018.
30 Doklad Prezidentu Rossiiskoi Federatsii—2016, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2016.html, accessed 12 February 2019.
31 ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2015, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2015.html, accessed 10 December 2018.
32 ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2014, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2014.html, accessed 10 December 2018.
33 ‘Upolnomochennyi pri Prezidente RF po zashchite prav predprinimatelei’, Doklad Prezidentu RF—2014, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2014.html, accessed 10 December 2018.
34 ‘Doklad o rezul'tatakh monitoringa primeneniya Federal'nogo zakona ot 5 aprelya 2013 g. 44-FZ “O kontraktnoi sisteme v sfere zakupok tovarov, rabot, uslug dlya obespecheniya gosudarstvennykh i munitsipal'nykh nuzhd” za 2016 god’, Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, available at: http://www.fko.msk.ru/upload/iblock/8d1/monitor44.pdf, accessed 18 February 2019.
35 There have been multiple reports of corruption in public procurement resulting from the abuse of the new system. For more details see: ‘Stepashin: zakon o goszakupkakh—samyi korruptsiogennyi’, Gazeta.ru, 15 July 2008, available at: http://www.gazeta.ru/news/business/2008/07/15/n_1243468.shtml, accessed 15 August 2013; ‘Stepashin predlagaet otlozhit’ v storonu 94-i FZ i oprobovat federal'nuyu kontraktnuyu sistemu’, 25 April 2011, available at: http://www.finmarket.ru/news/2077897, accessed 29 January 2019; ‘Medvedev: vorovstvo pri goszakupkakh prevyshaet trillion rublei’, Vedomosti, 29 October 2010, available at: http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/1135201/medvedev_vorovstvo_pri_goszakupkah_dostigaet_bolee_1, accessed 15 August 2013; Sapozhkov and Netreba (Citation2009). Over time the situation has not changed much and the recently appointed Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of Russia stated that corruption remains the major culprit of the state procurement process. For more details see, ‘Kudrin nazval goszakupki “bolevoi tochkoi” v plane korruptsii’, RBC.ru, 24 May 2018, available at: https://www.rbc.ru/society/24/05/2018/5b06a3569a79472dfdf51b2a?story=5af980859a7947b069a0a9d3, accessed 1 February 2019.
36 See for example: ‘Doklad upolnomochennogo pri prezidente Rossiiskoi Federatsii po zashchite prav predprinimatelei—2016’, available at: http://doklad.ombudsmanbiz.ru/doklad_2016.html, accessed 10 February 2019.
37 Federal Law 210-FZ ‘Ob organizatsii predostavleniya gosudarstvennykh i munitsipal'nykh uslug’, 27 July 2010, available at: http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102140498, accessed 30 January 2019.
38 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 697, ‘O edinoi sisteme mezhvedomstvennogo elektronnogo vzaimodeistviya’, 8 September 2010, available at: http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102141235, accessed 30 January 2019.
39 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 1353, ‘O predel'noi chislennosti i fonde oplaty truda federal'nykh gosudarstvennykh grazhdanskikh sluzhashchikh i rabotnikov, zameshchayuschikh dolzhnosti, ne yavlyayushchiesya dolzhnostyami federal'noi gosudarstvennoi grazhdanskoi sluzhby, tsentral'nykh apparatov i territorial'nykh organov federal'nykh organov ispolnitel'noi vlasti, a takzhe o priznanii utrativshimi silu nekotorykh aktov Pravitel'stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii’, 11 December 2015, available at: https://rg.ru/2015/12/21/chinovniki-site-dok.html, accessed 30 January 2019.
40 Order of the Government of the Russian Federation N. 632-r, ‘Kontseptsiya formirovaniya v Rossiiskoi Federatsii Elektronnogo Pravitel'stva do 2010 goda’, 6 May 2008.
41 Decree of the President of the Russian Federation N. 1657, ‘Ob optimizatsii chislennosti federal'nykh gosudarstvennykh grazhdanskikh sluzhashchikh i rabotnikov federal'nykh gosudarstvennykh organov’, 31 December 2010.
42 The estimates were made by the author on the basis of the Rosstat data on the quantity and remuneration of federal public employees as well as the Federal Budgets for 2011–2015.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mikhail Zherebtsov
MIKHAIL ZHEREBTSOV, Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Carleton University, 3315 Richcraft Hall, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada.